This invention relates generally to an apparatus and method of playing a card game and more particularly a card game that may be played in a casino and played player versus the dealer, the house, wherein the object is to have a total card count as close to a predetermined number as possible.
Card games, using poker cards in which the object is to have the face value of the cards add up to a target number are well known and include 21, Baccarat, 5 and a half twenty-one and a half, three thirty-three, and others too numerous to list. The value of face cards have been set as zero, one-half, or their actual value in the poker suit sequence depending upon the rules of the game. Some of these card games have been transferred to the Casino environment, such as L. Bartlett U.S. Pat. No. 5,529,309 disclosing single hand Baccarat with the dealer as the bank and allowing side bets, R. Coleman U.S. Pat. No. 5,857,678 where a player performs the bank function of single hand Baccarat with a dealer, F. Terminal U.S. Pat. No. 6,095,525 where 21 is played with 2 side bets and O. Ventura, U.S. Pat. No. 6,179,291B1 variation of 21 wherein pay outs are based upon the numerical value of each card dealt to a player versus the previous card dealt to the same player and the total number of successful cards received without exceeding the target number, 21, and M. Timpano, U.S. Pat. No. 6,237,917B1 which added a double payout for a pair of 9s to a Baccarat game.
While games such as those described above are interesting, there are a number of drawbacks. These types of card games are not readily transferrable to a commercial casino. The commercial casino must show a profit and the way that it does this is to provide games which are fast, relatively fair to the player, require little or no calculation by the player or dealer, provide the opportunity for the player to win a large jackpot, and provide the house with a comfortable profit margin, both by favorable odds and by quick games so that the house""s commission on winning bets is maximized for a given time period.
Therefore, the primary object of this invention is to provide commercial casinos a table card game which takes little time to complete, so that the commission take on each winning bet add up quickly, while the players experience a fast and non-complex game which provides the opportunity for the player to win a large jackpot while providing the house with a comfortable profit margin. A further object of this invention is to provide a card game with non-complex rules so that dealers are not required to be over qualified and the potential for disputes the players and the dealers is minimized. This is especially important where alcohol is served to players.
The foregoing objectives are satisfied by this invention, which is comprised of the method and apparatus for playing a casino card game with the object to get the numerical value of 9, being comprised of each player placing one wager and an optional Jackpot Side bet; the dealer dealing each player four face up cards and the dealer four face down cards; each player""s four cards compared with the Jackpot Side bet combinations; each player selecting a two card front hand and a two card back hand and then the dealer turning over the dealer""s four cards and selecting a two card front hand and back hand, and each player""s front hand and back hand measured against the dealer""s front hand and back hand. In the event of a tie, the dealer deals a tic breaker card for the player and a tie breaker card for the dealer with the highest card winning, dealer winning ties.
The novel features of the invention will be best understood from the following description in light of the accompanying drawings. While particular embodiments of the present invention are shown and described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that changes and modifications may be made without departing from this invention in its broader aspects and, therefore, the aim of the appended claims is to cover all such changes and modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of this invention.